A Critical Component In The OR

What should surgical professionals consider when purchasing equipment booms to ensure their OR is adaptable for future upgrades and updates?

May 31, 2010

A boom (Ceiling Service Unit) is one of the most critical component during OR renovation or new construction project. Anticipation is key to successful boom design. A boom can house a variety of equipment and provide several gas and electric outlets, hence we recommend that OR managers account for following four criteria during their equipment and room layout phase.

1. Throat Size. The larger the throat size, the more conduits that would pass through it.

2. Available Surface. Length of distributor is very important, typically you want to plan on using 80% of available length and keep at least 20% available for future upgrade

3. Blank outlet reservation. Users should consider spare conduits in the beam with blank outlets, this will help in easier upgrade with less cost and less downtime

4. Weight Capacity. Loading capacity is different for different distributor sizes so we advise that you plan with future in mind and account for all equipments that you would mount on the boom and have extra loading capacity for future use.

These four parameters are extremely important for current as well as future need because these parameters are limiting factors on number of gas and electric outlets, number of shelves, and available space to mount equipments and accessories. Maquet provides a dedicated project and room design team to help through boom (as well as OR) design process and we encourage our customers to actively participate in the process.